Chandra Release - November 29, 2005

Visual Description: SN 1970G

The image is a face-on view of a spiral galaxy called M101, which features a supernova named SN 1970G towards the very bottom of one of the spiral arms. The galaxy is in the center of the image and is dominated by shades of blue-grey, pale yellow, and white, all on a black background. The shape of the galaxy is much like a pinwheel. The orange colored Chandra X-ray Observatory image in the inset shows an X-ray close-up of SN 1970G. It is a supernova that was observed to occur in the galaxy M101 over 35 years ago. The bright cloud in the box in the optical image is not related to the supernova, which is located immediately to the upper right of the cloud.